Featured Cel

[Matt]

Hi,

I have noticed more and more RS galleries promoting a "featured Cel" section on their main page...so what's the deal? Do you post a cel with the most hits? Is the "featured cel" your newest cel? Why do you have it and how do you choose which cel to be "featured" Just curious.

Thanks,

Matt

[sensei]

Well, this is reminding me that I'd promised to organize this year's Gallery Open House (but I got seriously involved in some academic work that continues to find me out even though I'm retired...)

I got the idea from another curator (sadly, I forget whom) and thought it was a good solution to a RS home page design problem. As CB's thread notes, as one's collection grows, the number of individual galleries also tends to multiply, and so their list starts to drag down the page in the right column. That looks lopsided if you don't put something in the left column. So I added a "Featured Cel" and a "Featured Sketch" to make the two columns balance visually.

Actually, I don't have a real firm method of picking which items I "feature," except that I do choose ones that I'd purchased or uploaded on the same month (of a previous year) that I display them. And I never "feature" the same items twice. Often I pick ones from series that I like that aren't as frequently visited as others, as a way of getting visitors to explore in a more adventurous way. (But actually this month I'm featuring two heavy-hitters, one of my CCS Yue/Touya "Scene" cels and a Tenchi Muyo GXP sketch that once took a first in the Beta Sketch contest. They'd earned it, I thought.)

It's just become part of my routine of giving my gallery a fresh visual look at the beginning of each month. Works for me, but I'm sure others have different routines. Thanks for asking!

(And, yeah, I'll get onto the Open House idea again once I get something in the mail on Monday. Promise!)

[Rekka Alexiel]

I'm totally with you, Sensei. I originally posted the entirety of my silly walk through my cel books YouTube videos simply to take up the unused space on the left side of the page... but after a while, the left column started to get too bogged down compared to the right (can you believe that!?) so I cut many of the videos... Actually, I think it was a loading issue that slowed the whole page down... *scratches head*

ANYWAY!

I am also using a sort of "featured item" on my gallery. I like to change it every month...but I'm most forgetful, so this tends to be a per-3 month sort of thing unless I'm really on my game! The way I choose which item will be featured is pretty random; just something that I'm really happy to have added to my gallery and that hasn't gotten much recognition, usually. Right now my featured cel for July is...



I chose this cel simply because I've been able to add some exceptionally nice cels from this series to my gallery in the past year or so. It's still very much one of my top titles, so it needs it's time in the spotlight!! Let's see if I remember to change it for August!!

[Matt]

HI,

Ah Ok cool. Thanks Sensei and Rekka. Like I said, I was just curious

Matt

[Grico]

Hmm, seems like a reasonable idea.

[Gonzai]

Jennb was the first person I saw do it. Seems like lots of others since
then have followed in suit. I actually like the idea, just am too lazy to
do so. >_<

[toonybabe]

Sounds like a good idea to me! It would also help me not be so lazy about my gallery. If I had to change my featured cel every month maybe I would update more than once a year.

[Kata]

A friend of mine started to do the "feature image" a long time ago off RS. I followed her and both of us shown items due to that our collections weren't online to view and it was a way of showing each other part of our collections. After a few years both of us stopped it and closed our galleries. I used a feature image a couple times on my own site and on RS after, but got to busy to do anything in my gallery. She hasn't had a gallery in a very long time, and I miss seeing her collection.

[kamidake]

I feel like a total RS dummy. I recall seeing people featuring cels and sketches on the left side space, and thought that was a really cool way to use otherwise empty space. But I have no idea how it's actually done. Any RS Guru care to share? ^^;

[Rekka Alexiel]

I feel like a total RS dummy. I recall seeing people featuring cels and sketches on the left side space, and thought that was a really cool way to use otherwise empty space. But I have no idea how it's actually done. Any RS Guru care to share? ^^;

You're gonna want to go into your account on RS and look for the "Site Text" link in the menu bar on the left under "Gallery". Make sure you have selected "Home" as the page to edit (you can edit text on other pages like Wishlist, Feedback, About, etc., too). This is where you can change whatever greeting or general text that you want to display on the left column of your RS page. You can type just normal text or HTML, it will all work. But to post a featured image, you need to input some HTML code to do that.

[sensei]

I have an image housing account at Photobucket, which makes it easy. Resize your "featured" item or items, upload them to that site, and it will automatically generate the html language that you use to import the image to your RS site text.

They have a basic free account that you can use to try it out, but I opted to pay an annual rent for the premium account so I could import reanimations. And then I found you could do the same in the text of item descriptions, so I started importing screen grabs that way too.

I resize to 300 px width, which seems about right for me. If you have a bigger banner and wider columns, you could try larger widths and see if that works for you. I sometimes use 350 px width for pan images.

[kamidake]

Oh I see, so it's html img link in the text area. That's so cleaver! I just assumed html doesn't work there. *laughs* Thanks!

[animeobsessed]

I missed this thread while on vacation with no internet...anyway...I want to add I was one who followed in Jenn-b's footsteps and used the featured cel/sketch. This then evolved to a featured series. I started this so I would use the space created by having a long list of sections on the right of my Home Page.

What I do is create a Home Left Banner in Photoshop with all the text and pictures I want for my featured series using the required 300 px width. I have figured out the required height needed (by trial and error) to use the space on the left created by the Titles on the right. Then I upload this creation as my Home Left Banner in Rubberslug's Edit Site Graphics section...no html required. When I get tired on my Home page I choose another series to highlight and create another banner in Photoshop.